A Glimpse At The FIFA World Cups

FIFA is a short form of Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the internationally leading body of the sport that has been organizing the FIFA World cups every four years since 1930.

However, the horrible environment of the Second World War did not let the tournament take place in 1942 and 1946. Currently, this global association competition involves 32 teams at different places of the host country chosen by FIFA.

In the preceding three years, there is a qualification phase arranged to find out qualifying teams for the upcoming World Cup Finals. The year 2014 would be bringing the next prestigious competition of the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Every four years, the world’s most widely viewed sporting event; the FIFA World Cup brings lots of excitement, enthusiasm, pleasure, and thrill for football fans worldwide. Millions of people gather at various venues to rejoice in the unforgettable moments of each match of the tournament.

The most recent FIFA World Cup was held in the year 2010, and after an interesting competition, Spain named the title by beating the Netherlands in the final with 1-0 after extra time.

The World Cup final matches take place at the end of the tournament where the results decide the world champions. An additional 30 minutes are given as extra playtime if the regular playtime (90 minutes) finds the score as a draw. If the result is the same after, given additional time, the decision is left on the kicks from the penalty mark. Such kicks are commonly known as a penalty shootout.

The trophy of the FIFA World Cup given from 1930 to 1946 was known as the World Cup or Coup du Monde at first. Later in 1945, the name was changed with the Jules Rimet trophy. In 1970 Brazil was privileged with having the trophy everlastingly after naming the title thrice. An Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga is the designer of the currently used trophy. It is made of solid gold and the base is made of semi-precious malachite.

The FIFA World Cup has been organized 18 times and only 7 countries have taken the trophy to their homeland. Brazil is the country who named the title five times so far and this is the only nation that has never missed any FIFA world cup final tournaments as yet. With four titles, Italy is the second whereas Germany is the third most successful country in this prestigious tournament.

Below is the list of winners of the FIFA World Cups.